F-Secure Client Security/Enterprise AV

[hutchingsp]

Quite a specific question this time :)

Is anyone using this product in a centrally managed business environment i.e. few hundred clients and a few tens of servers?

Today I have downloaded and install their Exchange product, and whilst it's early days it seems impressive in that it seems simple but powerful enough, and of course the multiple scan engines seems a big plus point.

I've been reading the manuals and tomorrow I hope to download and start looking at the client and server software.

Obviously I want everything, powerful central management is important, combined with a/v that's as light as possible on client resources whilst detecting pretty much everything bad that occurs - can it meet my high expectations?!

Oh and if anyone knows a good UK reseller please let me know - the US pricing is ridiculously cheap but apparently US resellers can't sell to the UK.

[Baz_kasp]

Hi,

Slightly O/T from original question, but are you looking for a client/server solution specifically or server side av protection only?

[hutchingsp]

Client and server and Exchange.

[Baz_kasp]

I don't know much about fsec, but can give you my take on Sophos if you still have them as an option. Let me know if you want details as I don't want to derail this thread from original topic :) I remember you asking about possible solutions to protect your workstations/servers before if I am not mistaken.

[Bubba]

As stated in the opening post above by hutchingsp...."Quite a specific question this time", which refers to F-Secure Client Security/Enterprise AV as the thread topic.{QUOTE-> I don't want to derail this thread from original topic :) <-QUOTE}It's appreciated and will offer that hutchingsp does have an ongoing thread where any Sophos comments would be appropriate.

this thread---> Most Cost Effective Server A/V? (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=215618)

[ChrisP]

I have used F-Secure AV for Workstations - check sig. Have used Various versions of it for years - only on a single PC - but I wouldnt use anything else - fast, light, no FPs, fantastic detection and simple.

[hutchingsp]

{QUOTE-> I have used F-Secure AV for Workstations - check sig. Have used Various versions of it for years - only on a single PC - but I wouldnt use anything else - fast, light, no FPs, fantastic detection and simple. <-QUOTE}

Thanks, that's certainly worth knowing - I know they've been around for years though I'm not sure when the Kaspersky association came about? It appeals because Kaspersky always seem to be top at detection, though last time I tried their product it felt a little on the heavy/bloated side.

I've been playing with the F-Secure Exchange A/V product, which seems to just sit there and work, and also with the Client Security product v7, which again seems to "just work" although there are a couple of niggles around the firewall/internet security module.

They've suggested I could demo a beta of v8 since that would be the current version of Client Security by the time our client licenses came up for renewal, so I'll probably do that, plus they've offered a webinar/web demo which it seems stupid not to take advantage of.

[ChrisP]

Yep, having the Kaspersky engine makes me feel secure. I have used it, all the was back to V5 (or was it 4) - when it had three engines - Kaspersky, F-Prot and Orion - with Orion being just a heuristic engine. I believe now, it just has the Kaspersky engine and a seperate engine for Spyware etc - which updates seperately to the Kaspersky engine. It also has Blacklight for rootkits. Has always been faster than KAV. I tried KAV 8, which was faster than 7, but it bogged down the internet speed so I uninstalled. F-Secuer just works, does not waste my tima asking me silly questions - it just protects me.

[hutchingsp]

The info in the clients downloads log is:

F-Secure Anti-Virus AVP Extended Update
F-Secure Anti-Virus Libra Update
F-Secure Anti-Virus Orion Update
F-Secure Anti Spyware Update
F-Secure Anti-Virus Misc Update
F-Secure Pegasus Update
F-Secure DeepGuard Update
F-Secure Gemini Update
F-Secure BlackLight Engine Update

Which suggests quite a few components at work? Certainly a full scan absolutely grinds my PC to a halt, and it's a fairly powerful machine as office desktops go, though in use it seems pretty unobtrusive.

This is how silly it gets, so far this is the biggest downside I seem to have found:

It's corporate A/V, I like the firewall concept, but we don't want/need one on the LAN.

If you do this, the system tray icon turns yellow to warn you that you have no firewall in place.

That's fair enough unless that's what you want, and of course I have a few hundred users who will see a big yellow ! in the system tray and panic.

I'm hoping v8 will address this, or F-Secure come back to me with a best practise to not have (significant) firewalling in place on the LAN whilst not alarming the user.

[ChrisP]

I see you refer to "Client Security" if you dont need the firewall and just want the AV, why not use F-secure Anti-Virus for Workstations?

See here:

http://www.f-secure.com/small_businesses/evaluations/fsavwks.html

Dont know if this is any good for waht you want. I just have it on my desktop PC, but I believe it can be deployed and managed centrally.

[hutchingsp]

It's a good question, and this may be an uninformed answer (I've not yet looked at it beyond the datasheet) but I assumed the Workstation product was a bit older and more basic than client security i.e. no scanning of web pages "in transit" only when they land on disk etc.

It doesn't help that the datasheet is for v7 whilst the manuals available for download appear to be v5 - the products might be nice but the websites seem a bit ancient/mixed up :)

[ChrisP]

You have PM

[hutchingsp]

I may have just suffered a setback.

It appears F-Secure don't do anything for 64-bit Windows XP.

[patrikr]

{QUOTE-> It appears F-Secure don't do anything for 64-bit Windows XP. <-QUOTE}

That's true, we decided not to develop Client Security for 64-bit XP. Works fine on Vista 64-bit though.

--
Patrik
F-Secure Security Labs

[hutchingsp]

{QUOTE-> That's true, we decided not to develop Client Security for 64-bit XP. Works fine on Vista 64-bit though.

--
Patrik
F-Secure Security Labs <-QUOTE}

Thanks for the reply.

So is there anything in the F-Secure family that runs on Windows XP 64 bit?

I've read the server product will install and works for example?

I ask as we have a few hundred regular XP desktops but a couple of dozen 64 bit XP machines that aren't going to go to Vista any time soon.

[patrikr]

We have nothing that officially supports XP 64-bit, sorry. As for making some other version work, I'm sure it can be done but it wouldn't be officially supported and if you ran into problems you would unfortunately find it hard to get help unfortunately.

Patrik

[oliverjia]

Hi Patrik, do you know when F-Secure Client Security v8 or F-secure IS 2009 is gonna officially released? thanks.